By FIONA RAE
What would you think if one night, following a series of unusual events in your house, you turned around and there was a Maori warrior standing in the hallway?
Or, one moonlit night while you were having a cup of tea with a few friends, a war canoe full of warriors arrived in the estuary near your house?
These are two of the more sensational stories related in tonight's Inside New Zealand: Tapu (TV3, 8.30 pm).
Phil McEwan, who saw a warrior in his hallway more than a dozen times, is an ordinary Bay of Plenty bloke who describes himself as "the full five."
But after he moved into his rural home a series of events led him to seek help from local tohunga.
It was explained that his house was on the path to an ancient burial ground. The tohunga moved the spirits on.
"It changed my thinking," says McEwan.
"There must be something out there ... to see it and have it cleared and never see it again, it's very hard to believe."
The canoe with its warriors was seen by Wendy O'Neill and six friends. Her house is near Papamoa, where development is turning the area into a "mini-California" - and all on waahi tapu, or sacred land.
But those stories are really there for a bit of spice because, as is explained, tapu is a set of guidelines for people to follow in their everyday lives. Many of these guidelines have a practical basis.
According to legend, tapu existed at creation and was given to the people by the children of Ranginui and Papatuanuku as a set of guiding principles.
"It's a state of mind," says Dalvanius Prime, who is engaged in the very tapu task of returning moko mokai - tattooed heads - to New Zealand.
Pouroto Ngaropo believes that "tapu is a concept that all cultures have." He and his family decided 10 years ago to use tapu principles in their lives and have been on a learning curve of developing tapu principles that hold good today.
This includes not sharing hairbrushes - clearly a practical habit as well as a tapu practice.
And as Ella Henry explains, whereas the Pakeha idea of tapu is "taboo" - what is forbidden - tapu defines people's relationships with each other rather than separation.
But it is not always used positively. Henry believes that tapu has been used to make women subservient. The Rev Hone Kaa agrees. He believes it is an abuse of tapu to bar women from speaking on the marae.
Te Miringa Hohaia, at Parihaka, explains that tapu was used to advance some of his tribe secretly - so the stronghold of Parihaka was established as a safe place, a tapu-free zone.
Hareruia Aperahama, who explains much of the tapu way of thinking, says that one reason the prophet Ratana lifted tapu on land was to enable Maori to gather food there.
The surface of the subject seems barely scratched, but even so it's about time we had documentaries like this one. In a world of glossy advertising images of Maori, viewers may find themselves feeling slightly cleverer than they did yesterday.
TV: Reality in the realms of tapu
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